From Sept. 17 to Oct. 4, 2025 ten unoccupied oceanfront houses in Buxton, North Carolina were destroyed by ocean waves and the debris was taken into the Atlantic Ocean. On Sept. 17, only one house collapsed into the ocean, but recently, nine more houses in Buxton, in just a few days due to Hurricane Imelda and Humberto.

Another reason that this is happening is because of relentless coastal erosion, and strong waves from storms, which have brought these houses into the water. This is concerning because every single house that has collapsed into the ocean was built hundreds of feet from the ocean and coastal erosion was never considered when these houses were being built. This is the 21st time that this has happened in the Outer Banks alone in the past five years, and it is only getting worse every year. In just the last year, six houses collapsed into the ocean compared to just one in 2023.

But in Buxton, these are actually the first houses to collapse here in the past 10 years, as many of the houses that fall into the ocean are in Rodanthe, just north of Buxton. At this rate it looks like there will be a lot more houses in the future, as on the Rodanthe and Buxton beaches, you can see houses that are on the beach and are practically right on the water.

But all of the coastal erosion in North Carolina has happened on the Outer Banks, specifically in Rodanthe and Buxton. Buxton is the next target for coastal erosion as these two towns are very close to each other as they are both on Hatteras Island. If this coastal erosion doesn’t stop, it could destroy most of the oceanfront houses on the Outer Banks in about 150 years. Coastal erosion in the Outer Banks is only getting worse every year, and if it continues at this pace, then most of the island could be gone.

Luckily, the National Park Service monitors the town constantly, and if they see a house that is too close to the ocean, they issue safety warnings to the town and to the people inside the houses. Since there has been a house that has collapsed in Buxton, that means that they are on the radar too, and this hopefully means that the park service will monitor some houses in Buxton before the ocean can take them away.

Another good thing that the National Park Service is doing is that in 2023, the park service bought two houses for the price of $700,000 in Rodanthe. The reason they bought two houses is because those houses were very close to the ocean, and they wanted to do something about it, so they tore both of them down and turned the area into a public beach access. This is positive because it shows that the National Park Service is prepared for the houses to collapse at all times and they will tear down the houses just in time with permission from the owners of the houses.

One thing to notice is that most of the houses that are collapsing today are pretty old, such as the houses in Buxton, which were built from 1970-1995. This shows the drastic change in the past couple decades, as these houses were built a safe distance away from the ocean, and just recently were destroyed by ocean waves.

This is a very concerning thing that is happening in North Carolina. There are going to be plenty of more storms in the future, as the hurricane season in North Carolina returns every year every single time there is a hurricane, there is the possibility of more and more houses collapsing. The ocean will continue to get closer to the North Carolina coast every single day until solutions can be found.